EmployeeScreenIQ Blog

In a monumental decision this weekend the Obama administration is changing the governments course on federal marijuana laws.  According to the Associated Press:

Federal drug agents won’t pursue pot-smoking patients or their sanctioned suppliers in states that allow medical marijuana, under new legal guidelines to be issued Monday by the Obama administration.

This puts many U.S. Employers and the U.S. Government as an employer in an ethical quandary.  Many employers use extensive background screening services such as EmployeeScreenIQ to screen potential candidates.  As part of this process substance abuse testing may be included.  Many employers use the Department of Transportation’s (DOT) drug free workplace policies as a standard.  With fourteen states already allowing medical marijuana one can only wonder how these employers are supposed to react to these new policies.

This blog is not intended to start a “for or against” type of debate but more so to see how employers will react to the news.  In Ohio we don’t have medical marijuana but its gaining momentum.  Ohio is has great incentives for employers to create drug free workplaces.  Should it pass here it could create a tidal wave of questions from employers!

Feds to Issue New Medical Marijuana Policy

WASHINGTON – Federal drug agents won’t pursue pot-smoking patients or their sanctioned suppliers in states that allow medical marijuana, under new legal guidelines to be issued Monday by the Obama administration.

Two Justice Department officials described the new policy to The Associated Press, saying prosecutors will be told it is not a good use of their time to arrest people who use or provide medical marijuana in strict compliance with state law.

The guidelines to be issued by the department do, however, make it clear that agents will go after people whose marijuana distribution goes beyond what is permitted under state law or use medical marijuana as a cover for other crimes, the officials said.

The new policy is a significant departure from the Bush administration, which insisted it would continue to enforce federal anti-pot laws regardless of state codes.

Fourteen states allow some use of marijuana for medical purposes: Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington.

California is unique among those for the widespread presence of dispensaries — businesses that sell marijuana and even advertise their services. Colorado also has several dispensaries, and Rhode Island and New Mexico are in the process of licensing providers, according to the Marijuana Policy Project, a group that promotes the decriminalization of marijuana use.

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We will kick off this weekends wrap up with a timely story from the National Football League (NFL).  Like my Cleveland Browns, the Oakland Raiders just can’t catch a break.  Fortunately for them they have a marker in the W column.  Unfortunately for them they have a bit of controversy off the field.  They are bracing for the possibility that coach Tom Cable could be arrested soon for an alleged assault on an assistant coach.  If charged, Cable could be suspended by the league.  If convicted Cable could run into serious problems if his next team decides to screen his criminal background.  More on that story here!

Making history today is Justice Sonia Sotomayor the first Hispanic justice of the United States Supreme Court.  Replacing retired Justice David Souter she will begin the new term with some interesting cases.  Background checks and gun laws will definitely be on their docket this year.  Most notably will be McDonald v. Chicago.  In 2008, the justices ruled in a case from the District of Columbia that the Second Amendment bestows an individual right to keep and bear arms. Because the case originated in a federal enclave, the justices passed on the question of whether the Second Amendment also applies to states, thus calling into question gun regulations in those jurisdictions. The justices have now taken up this question and are expected to decide whether citizens in Chicago — which has one of the most restrictive gun regulation regimes in the country — also enjoy the same Second Amendment rights as do their brethren in the District. This case was recently granted and is expected to be heard some time in early 2010.

In workplace violence news Forbes Magazine ran a story, Experts: US worker-on-worker violence under-reported.  Stemming from the murder at Yale Universtiy of Annie Le, they write about some interesting statistics.  Workplace homicide has dropped dramatically, to 444 such cases last year from twice as many in 1995, according to government statistics. And most of those deaths occur in robberies of taxi drivers and clerks. The worker-on-worker homicide rate hovers around a hundred a year nationwide, leaving little data to help predict who is likely to kill a co-worker, said Tom Tripp, co-author of “Getting Even: The Truth About Workplace Revenge.” More on this story Click Here

In a follow up to a story we wrote about extensively a few months back….Investigator: Bozeman’s Internet background checks weren’t voluntary.  If you remember this one, the City of Bozeman MT was asking job applicants to supply investigators with their passwords so they could access their Facebook and Myspace accounts as part of the pre-employment screening process.  The city suspended the policy in June of 2009 after they came under fire for the practice.  However, it appears as part of their investigation into the procedure they have found hiring managers got carried away with the practice! More on this story Click Here

This one should scare you if you have elderly relatives in Florida.  Florida lawmakers vow changes after learning of laxness, loopholes in checking child and elder care workers – Florida legislators pledged to overhaul state law to require that caregivers for children and the elderly undergo background checks before they begin work and to close loopholes that have let thousands of felons get jobs in day care and nursing homes.

The proposed reforms come after a Sun Sentinel investigative series last week identified disturbing flaws in the background screening system that allow people to work with Florida’s most vulnerable residents before the caregivers have been vetted. More on this story Click Here

And finally a Kidnapping plot proves the importance of background checks.  The man accused of plotting to kidnap two young girls from a bus stop and hold them for ransom made his first appearance in court on Friday.

Police say Ruben Garcia-Rosario parked his car near the girls’ bus stop to take pictures of them. Rosario is an illegal immigrant who had done some painting at the family’s house, according to investigators.

Would you let someone in your house without properly screening them?

More on this story Click Here

Well that’s it!  Have a great week and check back regularly for stories and comments in the background screening world!

If you have stories you would like us to blog about or post please feel free to email us at blog@employeescreen.com

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Will the Philadelphia Eagles do a background check on their new quarterback, Michael Vick?  What is the NFL’s policy on allowing ex-convicts to play in their league?  Well we know the penalty is pretty severe for Brown’s receiver Donte’ Stallworth as we was just suspended for the 2009 season for killing a pedestrian and only serving 24 days in jail.  The NFL has an image problem, I don’t think Vick’s situation is helping much.  We have written before about professional football players, including a humorous take on Chad “OchoCinco” Johnson.  Law.com has an interesting take on the Vick situation:

As Michael Vick Returns to NFL, Employment Lawyers Push Criminal Records Checks

Michael Vick’s reinstatement into the National Football League is creating a lot of buzz in the employment law arena, where companies seek advice about using criminal records to make somewhat lower-profile job decisions. Employment lawyers say the case serves as a timely reminder to employers to review how they can obtain employee criminal records and how they can use them in hiring and firing decisions.

The Vick case — in which the NFL on July 27 conditionally reinstated the quarterback after he served 18 months in prison on dogfighting charges — is unusual in that his criminal record was widely reported in the media.

“They didn’t have to run to the courthouse to know what happened with Michael Vick, in which case the NFL was free and clear to take appropriate disciplinary action based on that information,” said management-side attorney H. Andrew Matzkin of Boston-based Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo. But that’s not how it typically works.

Employers must take care to obtain information about criminal records “in a lawful way and use it in a lawful way,” said Matzkin, who noted he is seeing an uptick in calls from clients asking how they too can use background checks. “If we’ve got somebody who is doing stuff we don’t like outside of work, can we ask them about it? Can we find a way to see what they’re doing? And if we don’t like it, can we let them go?” said Matzkin, listing some of his clients’ questions.

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We were so excited about our List of 2009 Background Screening Trends that we decided to give followers of our blog and employeescreen University a sneak peek. These trends will be officially released next Tuesday at the Annual SHRM Conference.

Some of our trends include:

1. The Importance of Thorough Background Checks in a Shrinking Job Market

2. The Use of Social Networking Sites to Screen Individuals

3. The Screening of Outside Contractors

4. Background-screening for Existing Employees

Click here to view the full list of trends with descriptions

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We were just notified about this from the Executive Director of NAPBS®. The good news is NAPBS® has been successful 100% of the time when these issues arise. This Bill was passed 46 to 17 by the Rhode Island House.

We have written about these issues many times before. We support ex-offenders and their rights to enjoy gainful employment. In fact, GOSO (Getting Out and Staying Out) is one of our corporate philanthropy’s. We just think employers have the right to know! Employers have the responsibility to ensure a safe working environment for their employees, customers and vendors. Its a slippery slope when putting forth legislation such as this. My hope is that the RI Senate quashes this effort, if not, a Veto from the Governor is also possible. Please take the time to write to the RI Legislatures about this issue!

House OKs bill to destroy criminal records

By Katherine Gregg
Journal State House Bureau

PROVIDENCE — Advocates for convicted criminals scored a victory on Smith Hill yesterday.

Despite objections from the attorney general, the state police and the governor, the House voted 46 to 17 for a bill to quash and destroy the records of criminal cases in which the accused was given a deferred sentence, usually in exchange for sparing the state a trial by pleading no contest or guilty to a crime.

The bill, which is now headed to the Senate, calls for the automatic destruction of all such records at the end of the deferral period — which usually runs five years, regardless of how serious the crime or the criminal history of the offender as long as he or she stayed out of trouble in the interim.

The bill sailed through the House with no debate yesterday after a heated — but short-circuited debate earlier this week — in which proponents assured their colleagues it was aimed at helping people remove from their records youthful indiscretions that were keeping them from moving ahead in life, school and jobs, and opponents noted the bill goes much further than the state’s existing expungement law in that it is not limited to nonviolent crimes by first-time offenders.

Beyond that, critics argued that it could be used as a legal club to try to prevent newspapers from publishing facts that the public already knows about crimes — or perhaps should know — if they involve candidates for a job, including public office. Current state law bars people with certain felony convictions from obtaining state licenses to work in nursing, social work and auto repair: this would provide a way around that.

“So now we are rewriting history and telling the newspaper they can’t refer to something that everybody knows about?” Rep. Laurence Ehrhardt, R-North Kingstown, asked rhetorically.

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One of our favorites, W. Barry Nixon from The National Institute For The Prevention of Workplace Violence  contacted Jason Morris and I about a year ago and asked if we would be interested in writing a chapter about International Background Checks for a book he intended to publish for those interested in learning how to manage hiring risks.  Together Jason and I collaborated with Les Rosen and Michael Damm to describe a process that at best had been sparsely addressed in the past.

The book entitled “Background Screening and Investigations: Managing Hiring Risk from the HR and Security Perspectives” was recently released and contains expert content from the most respected people in the screening industry today.  Those who deal with background checks in both HR and security can greatly benefit from this advanced level guide to mitigating hiring risk.

We are very proud to be included and think that interested readers can definitely benefit from our collective insights.

If you are interested in purchasing this book, it is available on Amazon.com now.

Click here to get the book now!

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employeescreenIQ is very proud to announce the launch of employeescreen University, a first-of-its-kind online, educational learning resource for human resource, security and risk-management professionals, which features regularly updated, free background-screening information aimed to help organizations make better hiring decisions.

We have been working diligently on this concept for some time now and hope you will take advantage of this free resource. We felt and continue to feel that there is so much misinformation out there about what constitutes an effective background check and how to establish a program that works for each individual organization. employeescreen University is all about educating the marketplace and empowering interested individuals with the information they need to develop an effective screening program. We also welcome your feedback and will tailor the site based on the comments and requests we see.

Official employeescreen University News Release

Please note that if you subscribed to our old blog you will need to change the feed to http://blog.employeescreen.com/?feed=rss2 For those of you who are interested in subscribing for the first time, you can use the same feed.

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